winged or chained
by the boulevard
Summary: Tell me it's real, Sasuke says, and Hinata never replies. -the one in which Sasuke hopes, destiny laughs, and Hinata doesn't seem to have a heart. sasuhina, postwar
1. i always thought it was sad

because Hinata is underrated and suddenly there is narusaku and i will mourn and weep, cry and scream for my baby girl.

oh, Don't forget to leave a review. i don't own naruto.

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**winged or chained**

**1.i always thought it was sa****d**

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Sasuke thinks it's sad, the white white walls of the Hyuuga compound.

He's been taking missions lately, and the Uchiha compound is full once again, but it's the Hyuuga compound he watches, solitary and empty and beautiful, in a way the the Hyuuga are - like tigers in snowfields. It makes him melancholy, under all the indifference, to hear wind chimes when no one's around.

so he steps inside the gates and walks around.

The gardens are still the same; traditional and untouchable and ethereal and he's still feeling like that four year old boy couching his nii-san's hand and shuffling in, blinking at Sakura blossoms and willow trees and lacquered bridges.

The main house stands in all its glory, shoji doors and bamboo flooring and great halls, with doors and doors and windows and large tea rooms and training halls. He passes them all, half lit and half shadowed.

he finds a girl ghosting in the garden; purple hair pulled taught into a bun in a plain white kimono and her pale ghost eyes trained on him. She's holding a watering can with delicate hands - "Uchiha-san, would you like some tea?"

.

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She looks like Hyuuga and flowers, this girl. She has the face of a smiler - she doesn't smile.

She pours tea with a straight back and steady hands, white socks under her white garments, a small blush on her cheeks. Sasuke hasn't seen anything as traditionally pretty, but the only hyuuga he's ever seen up close is Neji. Neji was pretty too, in a way that all Hyuuga are, but he won't dwell on it.

She looks at him like he's a beacon at the end of the dark, dank tunnel with puddles and smells and nightmares, and it's a nice feeling, being looked at like this.

"It's good to see you, Uchiha-san. i haven't had visitors in quite a while - it's nice to see a fresh face," she says. She still doesn't smile, but her face tells it all.

He can't remember her name - something about sunshine or sunflowers - but he is mild relieved that he can use honorific.

"Just strolling by," he replies, raising the steaming dark tea to his lips. its not green - he doesn't like green tea. She looks happy as she sets a plates of snacks on the table - rice cakes and tiny sandwiches and onigiri and dango and other things more fit for royalty than he is - and sets her hands on her lap. She doesn't take anything, it's all for him.

"How are you faring? alright i hope - you seem healthy , no, no, eat, Uchiha-san; i insist - the onigiri has tomato. I do hope this is alright with you?" she speaks softly, her hands still in her lap, as her eyebrows scrunch up slightly - she's worried.

"You see, I haven't had company in a while - i do hope my hostess skills are up to par."

"It is alright, Hyuuga-san."

He's trying to placate her, she seems like she's on the verge of chastising herself, but nods slightly in relief as her eyebrows fall back into place. her red lips still don't smile.

The screens are open to the garden of koi ponds and bridges and prim trees, a river flows in the distance - his home just across. He didn't think this place of lonely houses and shadowed halls was so close to where Shisui exclaims his righteousness in renewed vigour - "It's good to be back baby! the afterlife couldn't handle Shisui of the mirage."

He stifles a groan - he has to go back to those idiots. its better than nothing , really, as Itachi just stares at his cousin while the raised Izuna throws him around. It's nice to see the sunshine.

There are bandages on his hostess' forehead. He's paying attention now - it seems to be an awkward silence. He's never been good at filling it in. She doesn't even seem phased at the stark white cloth on her face, doesn't poke at it or mention it.

He knows he'll recount this one day.

He coughs slightly to clear his throat, and she raises her eyes to meet his before swiping them to the side and blinking. its beautiful when a Hyuuga blinks - but it's more odd then anything now. She doesn't frown in disdain or look appalled when he continuously reaches for the onigiri; but her eyes - they sparkle.

hyuuga eyes not meant to sparkle.

She's in her own position of merriment with a straight face and pale blush dimmed down to almost nothing while he eats and sips tea. She dutifully refills it every so often and inconspicuously pushes the plates closer to him. She looks delighted.

He's never seen someone so delighted to serve tea and sit stiffly. She might be crazy.

He thinks he's seen her before ("It's my nindo! " he's heard it before).

The sun's in her eyes - she's not blinking it away. She settles into the not so awkward silence, she doesn't mind if he doesn't speak, and he knows he's seen her before, maybe in passing, maybe more than that, and it's a nagging feeling when he doesn't even know her name. He might have felt bad if he wasn't himself. He always is.

She's patient when he takes his time to leave, well into twilight, a cinch on his shoulders and a drag in his step. she's never seen an Uchiha look so nonchalant about anything; it makes her happy, even for a little bit.

She walks him to the gate without hesitation. She's holding a swan shaped package of tin foil in her hands as her geta sandals clog against the path. its a nice noise.

Sasuke's not saying anything - he looks more preoccupied with his own thoughts - and she stands at the gate with a tilt in her brows and her shoulders weightless. its a good feeling, to have guests.

"Thanks Hyuuga, " he throws over his shoulder, face impassive.

"Ah, you're welcome back any time Uchiha-san."

The walk back to the Uchiha compound is short and silent, save for a few crickets in the late summer weather. He gazes at the Swan in his hands.

Shisui yells and cries and throws a fit - "I'd thought you died, my Sasuke!" and Itachi throws him a smile.

He places the silver piece of foil next to his mother.

"from the Hyuuga, " he says.

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Hinata kneels and wipes the floor diligently - never a frown on her face.

he'd left blood stains and mud and screams on her floor. she's happy to soak it all in.


	2. this is how i'm still

hello. an update. Concrit appreciated.

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**2. this is how** **i'm** **still**

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"Tea," she says, "is the answer to hope."

He tries to understand; he really does, but its this girl he's talking about. she looks like she'd tell him the sun is green and the sky is pink.

"elaborate, " he says. She doesn't.

"Just focus on the flowers, Sasuke-san," she says. "they never change."

He's starting to believe more and more that she thinks the sky is is pink, but she looks like she might be on the verge of discovering a soul moving revelation among the autumn setting of the Hyuuga lawn, where she'd set a table and laid food out for him.

You need to grow, she'd said. He doesn't mention that he's grown enough, because her cooking is the best he's ever tasted.

He still doesn't know her name, and it may seem more than rude, but she doesn't say anything and still doesn't smile. He may have seen a quirk of her stained lips here and there, but never something more. she's more Hyuuga than he thought.

There was one night when he'd had a dream of almost two years ago; he'd seen her with her hair down and her now grown out bangs in her face, shouting something, maybe a name or maybe meaningless words, and he thinks there was about to be her name somewhere, but he'd woken up just as she'd touched a fruit. It had looked like something never before. He doesn't like to remember this dream.

But here she is - no justus, cheerful disposition, mythical thoughts, and he'd like to say that it's far better than seeing her eyes on fire, because that's how he'd seen them. He likes this now.

He's returned eight times - maybe eighteen - since that summer afternoon, and she seems happier than ever each time he does, the food getting tastier, more for him.

She's _nice._

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She invites him in next time, because "It's getting too cold, Sasuke-san."

He has tomato snacks as she fixes gazes of fascination on him, each time bigger and brighter.

The room she has him in is warm and modern, set with couches and a TV mounted on the wall.

"We all need to watch something," she'd said once. "i just so happen to like this type of watching."

She let's him do whatever she wants, and he wonders if she's just dotting on him since she has no other visitors. Maybe he'd bring Itachi who'd bring Shisui who'd bring Izuna one day, but maybe he won't because he likes being depended on like this. It makes him feel like he can go on some suicide mission and come back with the world in his palm and hapless followers on his trail.

and maybe she inspires this feeling in him, but he likes to think this not quite friendship they have is something special. He doesn't feel like sharing it.

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"ominous," she murmurs at big grey clouds.

She springs out a few stars with her eyes, lights a fire with the fingers she taps against her chin, breaks ice with the way she moves her bishop over the board.

"to win is to succeed," she says.

He hums as he moves his pawn a space up, taking away one of hers. She seems pleased with his move. maybe he shouldn't have done it.

"But to succeed is to be absolute," she continues, moves her knight up the board.

and _heavens_ no should he be beaten by her, because he's been around long enough to know that he is Uchiha, and he is meant to win, and success is to be his. Her, infuriating pig he can't seem to call her, is doing something he can't seem to see through. maybe she's rewriting his destiny. He's seen it before.

The clouds are getting darker, and he feels like cursing them to hell. _It's autumn,_ he wants to throw out, _so fuck the hell off._ Language, he imagines her saying. They don't listen. lightening flashes.

He takes her bishop away and smirks. He still has it by the reigns.

"And to be absolute is to have nothing and everything," she says, attacking his king.

Her straight look says it all. Checkmate, sir.

And maybe he won't think twice about ever not setting a chidori to her heart if the need arises, but maybe he won't. destiny is overrated.

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Sasuke says a pattern to her seemingly random remarks. flowers, she'd said, watch them. He'd given her a look like she was growing something filthy from the side of her neck, and she'd placed a pair of lacquered chopsticks in front of him. She'd eaten too that day. It had been sushi she'd placed on the table.

Now she sits across from him and stares at something next to a koi pond a bit near. He doesn't ask what she's looking at.

The late afternoon sun focuses on a spot near what she's focused on, and it looks like a spotlight, and he thinks she's just discovered what she may be on to. A few flower bushes lay unaffected by the weather, ugly little things, and he's just being bitter because they're pretty enough, and they shine slightly.

She looks at him and it's something else. she's wrong. This Isn't what she was talking about.

And maybe she's just an idiot.

"It'll be winter soon," she says. She has a soft voice that rings with something like authority and a tinge of a whine. He doesn't know.

The bad ages across her forehead contrast with the dark shade of her hair he can't seem to place. she's wearing cranes and clouds sewn across her yellow kimono today. It might just be too bright for what he wants to see her in.

He has a mission in a few says. He doesn't ell her, and hopefully she'll guess it on her own. He won't throw her a bone, as shallow as this sounds, and maybe she'll throw him one too. For what, he doesn't know.

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Petulant as he knows he's being, he scowls at the orange haired thing clutching at Hinata's legs. She pats it's - "his, Sasuke-san, don't be so rude!" - head and makes introductions.

"This is Yahiko."

She'd pulled him away when the child had run into the garden, a slight frown on her lips.

"I'd found him in the rain, and he'd seemed hungry, and i don't think i could have left him there. And he'd said he didn't have a name, Sasuke-san, and he does look like a Yahiko."

He doesn't agree with this for reasons even he can't think of right now - maybe because he'd liked being all she needed for a few weeks, and he doesn't want to admit it's jealousy that pulls at his chest.

She looks concerned at the bandages wrapped around his arms, and he's throws out a simple Naruto. She nods and lays down lunch. he'd missed it this past week.


	3. fellow, yonder

and bonjour. Thanks for the Concrit. you are what the story is. I'm on fire, baby.

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**3.** **fellow, yonder**

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The path is dark - and the whole yard is dark - and he's almost set to racing through in search of something.

He finds Hinata watering silently as her blue yukata swings slightly in the breeze. and he'd forgotten, just for a moment, how _empty_ her presence can be.

One day before all of this Itachi had asked him what he looks for in life. He hadn't know how to answer that question. He still doesn't, and if it's the world's way of telling him he's still got something going on or he's got nothing going on, he doesn't ask for some sort of sign.

If someone will ever ask him if he's seen a ghost, he'll say yes, because as real as she is, he feels like maybe she'll start walking through walls and screeching at night. or maybe she'll take up sitting in lonely halls and whispering to hopeful ears and she'll crush those hopes or maybe spur them on. He doesn't know.

"Hello," she says.

He waves and she turns her head back to what she was doing, and he thinks that he's known her at least long enough to sit on the bench next to her and throw her looks. He continues when she doesn't notice.

"Where's Yahiko?"

"i Think he left with friends. He's energetic, for five years old. he'd run circles around me," she replies, looking at him from over her shoulder as if she's shocked he'd be asking about Yahiko.

"It's dark today," he remarks, and she sighs a gust of breath meant for more.

The sun won't agree today, she says.

The breeze picks up and blows some leaves away. They watch them go.

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It hasn't started snowing yet, for mid October, and perhaps it never will, but if it ever does he thinks that Hinata will not be affected for sometimes she is colder than ice.

He sees the way her white eyes sometimes focus on something far away, like she's planning on stabbing something until she is satisfied, and he sees something worse in her than he has ever seen in himself.

and sometimes, he thinks, when the summer rolls around she will fit right in with her bumbling gratitude and flower face. but mayhap it is the flowers that have a face like Hinata. He's not good with such thoughts.

"how is Madara-san?"

Sasuke almost chokes on the food in his mouth and clears his throat before swallowing and blinking and staring at her in disbelief. She merely stares back, a questioning furrow in her brow.

"He's fine," he finally says, "although they're keeping him in maximum security."

She nods and places a bite of pancake into her mouth, chewing delicately and swallowing before looking at something in the yard.

"He gave my grandfather those koi," she says, referring to the pond.

"Well, he gave him the first ones, and they began from there," she corrects.

Sasuke is still staring in disbelief.

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late October falls into place as Mikoto bundles everyone up in layers of scarves and jerseys and kisses. for good luck, she says. Shisui looks like a fool, running around with strings of blues and blacks and whites flowing around him, and once or twice the occasional child had stared in amazement at the group of male Uchiha walking through the streets to get some things for Mikoto.

"You are my boys and need to be energetic," she'd said.

The market seems averagely crowded as they make their way through, and Sasuke thinks he's seen a boisterous head of orange as he walks passed stalls.

"Sasukeeee!" someone yells, and he's attached by a flying ball of white and blue and orange. Yahiko.

"Sasukeee, okaa-san brought me here because she's buying thingies for special cakey and she says it's for me and you can't have any because it's mine, okay? but I promise I'll give you some when okaa-san isn't looking, okay?"

What the hell, he thinks.

"and - and we can share the cakey, okay, and we can even share some juice, dattebayo."

Sasuke's face crinkles up in mild disgust at the mentioning of dattebayo, as another person in white walks up to him.

"Ah, Sasuke-san. its good to see you. Yahiko had wanted some red velvet cake, so he'd dragged me here, but it's nice to see you about."

He tries moving his head around the child who'd wrapped his legs around his neck and had proceeded to lay wet kisses on his face and Hinata tried to pry him off.

Itachi blinks repeatedly as Shisui just plainly stares and Izuna takes to fixing Hinata with an intense stare. She bows and greets each of them, and maybe it's because he doesn't think Hinata has left Hyuuga grounds in a long time or maybe it's because someone else has seen her, but he's suddenly feeling annoyed.

She flattens her white kimono after she manages to pull Yahiko off of him, and she's left looking apologetically at him as Yahiko pulls her along, muttering about cakey and Sasuke sharing his cakey.

She offers each of them another bow before she's pulled ahead by the orange haired child, raising an eyebrow at his antics as her white scarf trails behind her.

"Sasuke," Izuna speaks up, "Since when do you know any pretty girls?"

He feels offended at this.

.

The next day Sasuke passes through and it's Yahiko he that greets him with chocolate smudged all over his mouth, talking a mile a minute and laying more kisses on his face. He probably looks like he'd been playing with the brown treat himself at this rate.

Hinata offers him another quirk of her lips when he enters the warm house, and this time he notices her presence is more _full._ She lays cakes and other threats on a table, some of them slightly bitter with dark chocolate, and he offers her a smile because it's clear that she'd made some for him too.

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	4. i don't seem to be having any affect now

authors note; bruhs i is sorry but here is an update. me did not know where to take thus but i have thought some stuff up and here you go. enjoy.

i really like you guys who review cuz that let's me know your opinion and stuff and it's just all around sweet. i love you. even you lurkers. short, i know, but i just wanted to give you a bone.

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02.

_and oh, what_ _a_ _let down_

_i_ _don't seem to be having any affect now_

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"Uchiha-san, this makes for quite the precarious position. May you please stop straddling me?" Hinata asks, her face inches away from his.

Sasuke let's out a breath, the air moving strands of long, dark hair from her pale face and scattering them across her bare shoulders and the wooden flooring beneath her.

She cats him a barely there glance - let go of my wrists, don't touch me - before she settles it on the hair hanging around his face, long tendrils that tickle her face. She rover her gaze to his head wear and a slight frown appears on her face.

"You dress like a thug," she says, dissaprovingly. Sasuke's pains expression turns to one of confusion.

"and how do my fashion choices affect your daily living?"

"Uchiha-san, you look like a common thug. It honestly hides your beauty. I would run from you on the street if i did not have the honor of knowing your dashing personality," she says, her frown deeper. "And your hair - if you are going to keep it long now, at least have it in a respectable style. honestly, Uchiha-san, this is quite the horrible look for someone of your stature. how do you ever hope to find a partner in this state? truly baffling."

Sasuke leans back, still straddling her, and his brows furrow.

"Are you chastising me?"

She gives a mild shake of her head - no, Uchiha-san, I don't think i am - and refers to his state of dress again.

"Uchiha-san, if you choose to carry yourself as a ruffian, people will have this impression of you."

Sasuke - what the fuck is going on, he thinks - screws a tired expression on his face, letting out a sigh of frustration that disappears into the air and locks his eyes with hers.

"Hinata, I don't know what you think i am sitting on top of you for, but it is not for advice on my choice of attire."

She bestows him with a calculating look, "But will you still change it?"

"You sound like my mother," he says with a chuckle.

"I take it you don't listen to her either."

"Oh, for heaven's sake - Hinata, I am trying to seduce you. How don't you see my efforts? I think I've made it obvious enough," he says, a flare of impatience in his voice.

"Well then. i don't think this is the most appropriate way to secure the feelings of another. Next time, try flowers and chocolate. girls like that. You are new at this, aren't you?"

His cheeks light up, and he turns his face away, not before muttering a kind of under his breath. Hinata gives him an understanding look, nodding her head slightly.

"I guess this proves you aren't involved with Naruto."

"What the hell? Who said this?"

She furrows her brows and tilts her head.

"Well, it has been hinted at."

He drops his head, cursing under his breath, and Hinata - helpful, unfiltered, unsmiling Hinata - releases one of her wrists from his grip and awkwardly pats his head in reassurance.

"Don't worry, Sasuke-san," she says, "I'm sure that if you get a haircut, I'll consider this infatuation you have for me."

Sasuke, deflated Sasuke, releases her other wrists and stares down at her. her bared shoulders, scattered locks, intricate black kimono, and sighs.

He's got it bad.

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Two weeks later Hinata walks into an organised meeting, gaze settled unflinchingly on the Hokage, and tosses something at his feet.

her head tilts to the side, her blood-spattered cheeks looking as pale as ever, and she sets her red covered hands in front of her.

"Tell the Raikage that Hyuuga do not fear war," she says, and then she's walking out, head held high, Hyuuga blankness schooling her features.

Naruto imperceptibly finches, and ANBU are there in seconds to collect the body of a Kumo-nin she'd deposited at his feet.

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a week later and it's November and snowing, and Sasuke can't pick out what flowers to get yet.

It's not his thing - sir, no, those are for funerals - and he's given up on his chances.

"Hello, Sasuke-san," Hinata says, ushering him into the house.

He likes her large festive sweater and plain leggings, the way her feet look swallowed in her large furry socks, her pair pulled back from her face. She lifts a finger to her lips, eyes analytical, before a serene expression washes over her face.

"You got rid of that ugly hat," she says, more than pleased.

"I did," he replies, and maybe he actually does indeed have a chance.

Two hours pass and Hinata frowns again, her wrists captured, Sasuke straddling her hips.

"Sasuke-san, I thought we have been over this. You don't win affections like this."

"I'm not - look, this is different."

"How so?"

"Your hands - i just, You killed a man, and here you are."

She turns her gaze to the side, focusing on her slender fingers, before she's gazing back at him with a bland expression.

"I do what needs to be done," she says, and Sasuke has never felt so grim. and sometimes, Sasuke can still sort of see the blood running down her fingers, dropping to the floor of the Hokage tower, on her face, her hands.

He places his face directly above hers, their breath intermingling, before her eyes narrow and she's tossing him him off of her, into a wall across from them.

She sits up and massages her wrists, a frown forming on her face, before she casts her scathing glare onto him.

"Your plans of seduction will not work if you cut off the blood flow from my wrists," she says, her white eyes hard.


	5. ALERTY

just an alert.

sorry guys, I just wanted to let you know that in a week I'll be taking this story down and reposting it cause i have revised the plot and junk. really sorry for this inconvenience but i hope you'll follow the one I put up.

Thank you guys so much. Have a good day.


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